Communication and Teamwork

Abstract

Palliative care addresses physical, psychosocial, and spiritual dimensions of patients and their families. The care is focused on the person rather than on the disease. Therefore, the expertise of various health care professionals including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, chaplains, pharmacist, physical therapists and others are necessary to manage these patients’ complex needs. For the provision of optimal coordinated care excellent communication is integral part of this interdisciplinary approach. To facilitate such communication routine interdisciplinary clinical case discussion and meetings with essential team members should occur. In this chapter, the need for interdisciplinary teams in palliative care, team composition, communication, and leadership for interdisciplinary teams are outlined.